Facial sauna

ABSTRACT

A facial sauna device for face treatment with hot steam and beauty liquid nutritious to skin, which comprising a nozzle of steam generating means, and a hood having an opening for receiving user&#39;&#39;s face and arranged to surround said nozzle, said hood being provided with spherical concave surface partly on its inner surface so that the steam sprayed out of the nozzle is reflected at said concave surface and thereby led toward the face receiving opening. The hood is detachably mounted to a suacershaped receptacle provided at upper part of the steam generating means, and includes a breathing duct of a horn shape detachably mounted to a duct receiving means provided in the hood and communicating the duct with external air. The hood preferably comprises a fixed hood member detachably mounted to the saucershaped receptacle and a movable hood member rotatably mounted to said fixed member.

United States Patent 1 Kusunoki FACIAL sAUNA [75] Inventor: Toshio Kusunoki, Hikone-shi, Japan [73] Assignee: Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.,

Osaka, Japan 22 Filed: Dec. 20, 1971 21 App1.No.:'209,7l5

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 28, 1971 Japan 46/37130 [52] US. Cl 128/368, 4/165, 128/173.2 [51] Int. Cl A6lh 33/00 [58] Field of Search 128/368, 256, 173.2, 128/367; 4/160, 165

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 571,587 11/1896 Weissenbom 128/368 1,587,844 6/1926 Landberg 4/165 1,930,038 10/1933 Crowley... 4/165 3,152,240 10/1964 Scott 128/368 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,105,121 4/1961 Germany 128/368 Oct. 30, 1973 Attorney-Wolfe, Hubbard & Leydig 57 ABSTRACT A facial sauna device for face treatment with hot steam and beauty liquid nutritious to skin, which comprising a nozzle of steam generating means, and a hood having an opening for receiving users face and arranged to surround said nozzle, said hood being provided with spherical concave surface partly on its inner surface so that the steam sprayed out of the nozzle is reflected at said concave surface and thereby led toward the face receiving opening. The hood is detachably mounted to a suacer-shaped receptacle provided at upper part of the steam generating means, and includes a breathing duct of a horn shape detachably mounted to a duct receiving means provided in the hood and communicating the duct with external air. The hood preferably comprises a fixed hood member detachably mounted to the saucer-shaped receptacle and a movable hood member rotatably mounted to said fixed member.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures INVENTOR f'dfi/fl XXII/V447 ATTORNEY! PAIENIEDnmsoms 3.768.483 SHEET. 3 BF 4 ATfORNEYJ' FACIAL SAUNA This invention relates to facial equipments known as facial sauna and, more particularly, to a beauty device for face treatment of the type adapted to spray such a face beauty liquid nutritious to the skin as a fruit juice or the like to the users face together with steam.

There have been known generally two types of facial sauna equipments, one of which is so-called steamer of the type that simply applies steam to the face and the other of which is of the type that adapted to provide ions to the steam and spray such ionized steam.

In the known equipment of the type that which applies simply the steam, only such effects of the applied steam are performed that cosmetics or any other obstacles on the facial skin are washed off, any dusty substances or excessive fat in deeper position of the skin are cleansed, and the skin or internal secretion organs are excited with mirco-particled steam vigorously sprayed to the face for carrying out so-called micromassage effect. Thus, an action of providing nutritious substances to the skin cannot be expected.

There has been also suggested an equipment of the type in which certain nutritious materials are added to the steam. However, this type of equipment as well as the type in which the steam is ionized adopts a structure which is simply adapted to apply the steam caused to jet out from a nozzle directly to the face and, there fore, the user's skin is apt to be burned by steam. According to the present invention, the steam containing nutritious material is caused to jet against inner surface of a hood substantially of spherical shape so that the steam is reflectively dispersed by the hood and thereby led to an opened side of the hood adapted to receive the users face. With this arrangement the present invention has solved such problem that the danger often caused by the steam directly applied to the face has to be prevented from occurring.

Principal object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a facial sauna equipment which enables to apply the steam jetted out from a nozzle to the face without any unevenness in temperature distribution and uniformly from all directions by causing the steam to be reflected at the spherical inner surface of the hood and to be in a convection at the face receiving opening with a combined effect of a ventilator hole.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a facial sauna which can be used in a natural posture of the user with respect to the spherical hood, forming said hood so as to comprise a fixed hood part and a movable hood part pivoted to the fixed hood at its opening in a manner rotatable with respect to center axis of the equipment main body so that the angle of the face receiving opening of the hood can be freely adjusted.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a facial sauna which having a comfortably finished face receiving opening of the hood by way of making the opening edge curved inward so as to form an integral face resting edge, so that no impression of the hood will be left on the face or any droplets deposited on the hood will not flow to the face.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an equipment of the kind referred to which allows the user to easily continue breathing during the use of the equipment with the aid of a mask-type breathing duct detachably provided inside the spherical hood as communicated with exterior air.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a facial sauna which is provided with a safety valve in a cap member detachably mounted to supply inlet of an autoclave in the device so that when the sprayer nozzle is clogged and inner pressure of the autoclave is extraordinarily raised the safety valve is actuated by the raised pressure so as to automatically have the pressure decreased.

A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a facial sauna having a spherical hood which is, mounted to dish-type receptacle base of the device body in a detachable manner so that when the device is not used the hood can be detached from the base and remounted as reversed to the base inserting the cap having a hanger ring of autoclave of the latter into a through hole of the hood for mounting the breathing duct, thereby the device can be stored in compact state and carried in handy manner with the hanger ring.

Other objects and advantages will be made apparent upon reading the following description of the invention detailed with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of an embodiment of the facial sauna according to the present invention as assembled but partly shown in section;

FIG. 2 is a vertically sectioned side view of the device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the device, the hood of which being dissasembled from the base part which is shown as partly cut off; and

FIG. 4 is a side view showing the state in which the hood is remounted in reversed manner for storing.

While the present invention shall be explained with reference to the embodiment shown, it should be understood that the true intention is not to limit the invention to the particular embodiment but rather to cover all possible alternatives, modifications and equivalent arrangements to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

Referring now to the drawings, A is a cylindrical main body preferrably made of a plastics, wich accommodates a container 1 for facial beauty liquid and another container 2 for wasted liquid respectively in each of a pair of recessed receptacles 3 and 4 provided at the front side of the body A. The body is provided at the lower rear side with a breathing duct standing stub 5 and at the upper periphery with two groups of ventilating holes 6 and 7. B is a saucer-shape receiving base preferrably made of a plastics, which comprises a saucer-shaped receiving section 8, a plurality of engaging members 9 projecting inward from upper peripheral edge of the base and having respectively a tapered lower face, intake and waste cylinders 10 and 11 provided in the bottom at corresponding positions to the beauty liquid container 1 and waste container 2, respectively, and a receiving platform 13 formed at the center of the base and having an insertion hole 12. The receiving base B is mounted on the cylindrical main body A so that bottom face end edge of the platform 13 will be engaged on upper opening edge of the body A.

C is an autoclave of cylindrical shape closed at the bottom, which is provided with a water supply port 14 formed centrally at the upper end face, a nozzle D mounted at upper external periphery of the cylinder through a bushing and a ring member 16, a thermostat S mounted to lower surface of bottom wall 17 of the cylinder by means of a screw 18, and a flange l9 frmed so as to laterally project around upper outernal periphery.

E is a cylindrical mounting member preferably made of metal. lts upper end opening 20 is formed to coincide with the insertion hole 12 of the receiving base B so that the member B will be arranged inside the main body A. The flange 19 of the autoclave C is held through a gasket 21 between the respective peripheral edges of the opening 12 of the base B and the opening 20 of the mounting member E, so as to cover lower body of the autoclave C. H is a band-shaped heater arranged around outer periphery of said lower body of the autoclave C, and is fixedly held between upper and lower projections 22 and 23 which are provided in the mounting cylinder E by cutting out its cylinder body and bent inward. l is a fuse mounting plate secured to the member E across an opening 24 provided so as to correspond to the bottom section of the autoclave C,

' by means of raised nails 25 at both side edges of the opening 24. The mounting plate I has terminals 26 and 27 and thermo-sensitive fuses -28 are mounted across these terminals.

G is a covering cap member preferably made of a metal and having a central opening at the upper end and a projection 29 at the periphery. The cap G is mounted cover upper part of the autoclave C through a gasket 30 interposed between peripheral edge of the central opening and opposing peripheral section of the water supplyport 14 of the autoclave C, and its downward end is superposed on the receiving platform 13 of the base B and the both superposed members are fixed to upper end of the cylindrical mounting member E by means of screws 31 passed through them and screwed to peripheral edge of the opening at the upper end of the member E. 32 is a bottom plate, which is butted at its upper side periphery to raises 33 formed inside periphery of base section of the cylindrical main body A so as to be located at the bottom surface of the body A. A screw 34 penetrating through the center of said bottom plate 32 is screwed into threaded hole in a channel member 35 provided at lower end of the cylindrical mounting member E so as to fix the plate 32 to the member 35. The base section of the main body A is provided in its front wall with an indicating window 36, inside which a pilot lamp P is mounted, and in its side wall with a power source switch S mounted thereto exposing its operating knob 37 to the exterior. To the nozzle D, a cylindrical nozzle base 38 having an opening of which inside edge being outwardly tapered is mounted. A jet] is further mounted to said nozzle base 38 laterally so that its forward end will be adjacent forward end of the nozzle D. A flexible tube 39 coupled to the jet J at an end is led at the other end into the beauty liquid container 1 through the intake cylinder 10 at the receiving base' B. The cylindrical nozzle base 38 has an aperture at the side facing to the jet J for the purpose of cleaning the jet opeing, and a lower aperture 58.

K is a top-cap member of reverse T-shape in section, comprising inner cylinder 41 and outer cylinder 42 integrally formed. A coil spring 43 disposed above a safety valve rod 44 is inserted inside the inner cylinder 41 for allowing the rod 44 to be movable upward and downward, whereas in the outer cylinder 42 another coil spring 45 of a larger diameter is disposed above a safety valve plate 47 having at its center an exhausting outlet 46 to be closed by the valve rod 44 so as to hold the plate 47 for-free movement in upward and downward directions. The outer cylinder 42 is provided at inner surface of lower portion with a recess 48 for engaging therein the projection 29 of the covering cap G, and at the top with a hanger ring 49 rotatably mounted. Thus constructed top-cap K is placed over the top of the autoclave C and fixed thereto by having the projection 29 of the autoclave engaged in the recess 48, so that the water supply port 14 of the autoclave C will be closed by the safety rod andplate members 44 and 47.

F is a hood, which comprises a fixed hood member 15 f of a semi-spherical shape having a spherical inner surface and a movable hoodmember f, of a band-ring shape opened at both ends and pivoted to the opening edge of the hood member f in a movable manner. The fixed hood member f, is provided with a tubular opening 50 substantially at axial center of the inner spherical surface and communicated with the exterior as formed integrally so as to extrude inward, into which a horn-shaped breathing duct L having an enlarged section 51 is detachably mounted so as to be upright in the hood. At a peripheral wall of the hood member f, between the opening edge and the tubular opening 50, there is formed integrally an engaging cylinder section 53 opened to extrude outward, which having at the outer periphery a plurality of engaging projections 52 respectively tapered at the upper surface for engaging with the engaging members 9 of the saucer-shape receiving member B. The movable hood member f is provided at one end with face receiving opening R integrally formed and comprising a face resting edge or flange 54 formed by bending the opening edge inward. At a position where will be the uppermost surface of the hood member when the same is mounted to the receiving base B, there is'provided a vantilator hole 55. The movable hood member f, is slided at its outer periphery of the other opened edge into inner periphery of the opened edge 56 of the fixed hood member f so as to be superposed inside the latter edge 56. The both hood members are integrally coupled by means of pivoting pins 57 inserted through the superposed section at both sideward positions so that the movable hood member f, will be rotated vertically, The engaging cylinder section 53 of the fixed hood member f is then mounted on the saucer-shaped receiving base B and the whole hood F is turned around so as to bring the respective engaging projections 52 into engagement with the engaging members 9 of the base B, so that the hood F is fixed to the base B in a detachable manner.

The device according to the present invention having the above described structure will be used in the following manner. First in the state where the hood F is dismounted from the base B, the top-cap K above the autoclave C is removed to pour the water into the autoclave C and is mounted again to the autoclave so as to close the water supply port 14 with the safety valve rod and plate members 44 and 47. Then after the hood F is mounted and fixed to the base B, the container 1 containing such facial liquid as water and lemon juice or the like which is nutritions to the skin and the container 2 for waster liquid are placed in the recessed receptacles 3 and 4 at the front side of the main body A, re-

spectively, and the flexible tube 39 connected at one end to the jet J is inserted at the other end into the facial liquid container 1, after which the electric power source switch S is turned ON. Thus the electric power is supplied to the band-shaped heater H fixed around the periphery of the autoclave C so that the autoclave will be heated by the heater H, thereby the water contained in the autoclave is heated. When the heated water is brought to a boil and the inner pressure of the autoclave is raised, the steam is jetted out of the nozzle D. Due to such jetting of the steam, the facial liquid is sucked up and jetted out from the jet J automatically so as to be sprayed inside the hood F together with the steam in vaporized state. When the steam and facial liquid are thus sprayed, the user will apply the face against the face resting edge 54 at the opening R of movable hood f so as to insert substantially whole the face into the opening R. At this time, the user's nose and mouth will be rested in the enlarged section 51 of the breathing duct L communicating the users breath with the outside air through the tubular opening 50, so that the user will be able to easily continue breathing without being disturbed by the spray. Under this condition, the user will warm up the face with the steam sprayed inside the hood F as reflected on the spherical inner surface of the hood for about 2 to 3 minutes and simultaneously the nutriments are presented to the facial skin. The steam sprayed into the hood is scattered toward the users face after reflected at the spherical inner surface of the hood, then the steam is caused to travel along inner surface of the face resting edge 54 and I down along the inner surface of the hood so as to be urged to form a convection. During the travel along the inner surface of the hood, the steam is cooled and condensed so as to be liquefied. Such liquefied steam is stored in the saucer-shaped receiving base B and led out to the wated liquid container 2 through the waste cylinder 11.

When the use of the device is terminated, the power switch S is turned OFF. Remaining liquid and wasted water and liquid in the containers 1 and 2 are removed, the hood F is dismounted from the receiving base B after taking the breathing duct L out of the hood F, then the top-cap K is dismounted and remaining water in the autoclave C is cast away, and the top-cap K is returned to the position. The hanger ring 49 at the top of the top-cap K is setup and the removed breathing duct L is engaged to the standing stub 5 on the main body A for the duct so as to be up-raised on the stub, after which the hood F is placed over the body A in the reversed state so that the hanger ring 49 of the top-cap will be passed through the tubular opening 50. The sauna device according to the present invention can be easily carried to storing place in this way by holding the hanger ring 49 exposed above the hood F.

According to the present invention, as described in the foregoing, the movable hood member of the hood is arranged in a rotatable manner by means of the pins pivoting the member to the opening edge of the fixed hood member so that the movable hood member can be inclined to any desired angle with respect to the center axis of the cylindrical main body. Therefore, the user will be able to insert the face into the face receiving opening of the hood at any easy posture. Further, since there is provided the breathing duct in the hood in such manner that the duct is detachably mounted to the tubular opening of the fixed hood, which communicating the inside volume of the hood with exterior air, and the other end opening enlarged of the duct is positioned so as to oppose to nose and mouth section of the users face inserted into the movable hood member, the user is enabled to easily continue to breath the air outside the device'while the steam is being applied to the face.

The steam sprayed out of the nozzle inside the hood is first applied against the inner spherical surface of the hood and the tubular opening thereof so as to be reflected from them and divided, thereby the steam is scattered uniformly inside the hood. Further, the steam thus scattered along the spherical surface hits the inside curved surface of the face resting edge, whereby the steam is urged to flow in a convection along the inside hood surface, so that the steam is not caused to be condensed on the hood surface so as to prevent any water drops from being flown to the face. The steam is applied to the face in a uniform spray, which is effective in performing such effects of properly opening pores in the facial skin so as to cleanse any dust or the like even in deeper position of the skin by the action of the steam and the relatively a high temperature thereof, massaging the skin and the secretion organs by exciting them with the micro-particles of the steam, and thus softening and moistening the skin surface so as to have the nutriments contained in the steam effectively absorbed to the skin so as to remove any of such troubles on the skin as pimples or the like and also to prevent wrinkles or crows feet and the like from occurring so that the skin will be kept in youthful condition.

Since the nozzle for spraying the steam is provided with a nozzle base member of which inside opening edge is tapered outwardly, it is prevented that, when the steam sprayed out of the nozzle is partly caused to hit forward end of the facial liquid spraying jet and thus liquefied so as to stand inside the nozzle base, such standing water may happen to be blown away by the steam in a dense groupe of cool water particles, since the liquefied water will automatically frow along the tapered edge and the through hole provided adjacent the edge and drops down to the saucer-shaped receibing base. The above is effective in keeping the steam sprayed with a uniform temperature distribution and in a smooth current.

Further, as the autoclave is covered at the water supply opening by the top-cap member which including the double safety valve actuated by excessively raised pressure inside the autoclave, the present sauna device is effectively prevented from possible explosion even when the steam spraying nozzle is clogged by the fur or any other obstacles and thus the inner pressure is excessively raised, since such excessive pressure will automatically actuate the safety valve so as to let the pressure escape from valve opening to reduce the inner pressure. The nozzle base is also provided with a lateral aperture at opposing position to the facial liquid spraying jet for allowing the user to be accessible to the jet opening, so that any obstacles causing a clogging of the jet may be removed by means of a cleaning needle through the aperture without any necessity of dismounting the jet from the nozzle base.

The autoclave in the device according to the present invention is further provided with a band-shaped heater around the outer periphery, which is surrounded by the cylindrical mounting member disposed between the autoclave and the cylindrical main body of the device. This arrangement is effective in enabling to locate and fix the band heater in position on the autoclave by way of raised cut-out projections from the mounting member wall, preventing the cylindrical main body made of a plastics from being affected by radiated heat from the heater, and causing the air inside the mounting member as heated by the heater to flow in a convection, thereby certain amount of external cool air will be drawn into the main body through a clearance between the bottom plate and the lower portion of the main body so that heated air will be exhausted through the ventilating holes at the top of the main body so as to prevent temperature raise at the cylindrical main body volume from occurring,

The ventilating hole provided at the top portion of the movable hood is effective in retaining inside temperature of the hood uniform since the hole allows the steam sprayed inside the hood to partly escape outward therethrough at the time when the users face is rested on the face resting edge at the face receiving opening of the movable hood member. Further, after the device is used, the breathing duct in the hood can be removed from its position to the duct standing stub integrally formed outside the cylindrical main body so as to be upright along the main body. This arrangement enables to place the whole hood dismounted and reversed over the other part of the device substantially comprising the cylindrical main body, allowing the uppermost part of the top-cap with the upraised hanger ring to penetrate through the tubular opening of the hood, and thus the device can be reassembled to a compact posture for easy storing and can be easily carried by holding the hanger ring exposed above the reversed hood.

What is claimed is:

1. A facial sauna device comprising in combinatio a means for generating steam and a hood having an opening for receiving a users face,'said means for generating steam comrpising an autoclave anda nozzle which cooperates with said autoclave to form a jet of generated steam, said hood being arranged to surround said nozzle and forming a concave inner surface adjacent to said nozzle so that said jet of generated steam formed by said autoclave and cooperating nozzle impinges upon said concave inner surface of said hood to reflect and scatter said jet toward and across said facereceiving opening in said hood and then back along the inner surface of said hood toward said nozzle so that the air inside said hood forms a convection current and provides uniform distribution of heat inside said hood.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said hood includes a substantially horn-shaped breathing duct member having an enlarged end opening and a smaller end opening, said breathing member being detachably mounted at said smaller end opening to a duct receiving means provided in said hood, so that said enadjacent to said nozzle. 

1. A facial sauna device comprising in combination a means for generating steam and a hood having an opening for receiving a user''s face, said means for generating steam comrpising an autoclave and a nozzle which cooperates with said autoclave to form a jet of generated steam, said hood being arranged to surround said nozzle and forming a concave inner surface adjacent to said nozzle so that said jet of generated steam formed by said autoclave and cooperating nozzle impinges upon said concave inner surface of said hood to reflect and scatter said jet toward and across said face-receiving opening in said hood and then back along the inner surface of said hood toward said nozzle so that the air inside said hood forms a convection current and provides uniform distribution of heat inside said hood.
 2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said hood includes a substantially horn-shaped breathing duct member having an enlarged end opening and a smaller end opening, said breathing member being detachably mounted at said smaller end opening to a duct receiving means provided in said hood, so that said enlarged end opening will oppose the face-receiving opening of said hood and said smaller opening end and said duct receiving means are disposed to reflect and scatter said jet of generated steam formed by said autoclave and cooperating nozzle around said breathing duct member to provide uniform distribution of heat inside said hood.
 3. The device as claimed in claim 2, wherein said duct receiving means is a tubular opening communicating with the exterior.
 4. The device as claimed in claim 2 wherein the smaller opening end of said breathing duct member is adjacent to said nozzle. 